2012 USA Pro Challenge: Stage 07

2012 USA Pro Challenge: Stage 07

I
"You Learn From Every Race"

On the last day of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge, MFS caught up with three background-players in the race.

Dustin Gray, Division Leader, Law Enforcement

We’re providing safety support for the race, making sure that spectators and everyone else that’s not directly involved with the race stays safe. We’re not interested in taking people to jail or anything like that; our aim is to keep people safe. We won’t be doing any sort of heavy-handed enforcement, we really just want to make sure that everyone has a great time out here and makes it home at the end of the day. Last year I worked “Rest of World,” which is everyone in the office who takes care of the calls not related to the race. This year I’m lucky enough to get to work the race. It’s been a lot of fun; the crowds are great and everyone is having a good time, getting out of the way when the race come through and keeping a positive atmosphere. We have some special preparations for an event like this, just to be prepared, that you might not expect—but we’re going to keep it that way. Really they’re just contingencies and they cover everything from natural disasters, especially things like lightning (for some of the stages earlier in the week), to some crazy person looking to ruin everyone else’s day. With 150 cops involved in something like this, each officer has one small element to focus on, and then we have a few guys like myself who not only help out individually but are here to coordinate when different jurisdictions need to work together. And we love this, the race. Not only is it great practice for us—we do the Winter X-Games every year which is a similar scenario with the police, fire department, ambulance units working together—but it’s a great crowd, a great event. It’s a lot of fun for us.

Kevin Reichlin, Team Chiropractor, Garmin-Sharp

I’ve been with Garmin and J.V. for ten years, since the team started as 5280. I’ve seen guys turn themselves inside out on the bike, and I’ve seen firsthand what the human body is capable of. Playing a role in that is really rewarding. I help the guys get back into riding shape if they crash. I also do some smaller things to help them perform better day-to-day, and I manage all of the nutritional supplements for the team.

I not only make sure that everyone is taking everything that they need to be taking, but that what they are taking is clean.”-&nbspKevin Reichlin

A lot of times things you wouldn’t normally think of can make our jobs difficult: earlier in the week the team was split in between two different hotels, which means that the support staff is shuttling between two different places. Given how much we have to do each night, that makes our schedules tight. But you get used to it, you learn from each race, and you learn to manage it.

I graduated med school in 1992, my residency in 1999, and I’ve been practicing since then. Starting about 10 years ago with professional triathletes I’ve been working a lot with endurance athletes. The weird thing is that all of these guys already have a crazy high level of fitness. My job is not to get them into shape. What I can do is help them recover in between the times they use that fitness, because that’s the difference between succeeding and not. For example we use the SPACE LEGS [emphasis ours] system. It looks funny but it’s the best thing out there, especially during these stage races where they are extending their exertion over a week or more. On the lower-tech side we work to get as much nutrition back into their bodies and to maintain the small stuff like saddle sores and road rash. That stuff gets nasty—I look from afar, a good arm’s length—and then let them apply the medicine they need themselves.

I like cycling, I like Exergy. They're Boise-based. Everyone on the team is easy to work with and enjoyable to be around. I do this because I like it.”-&nbspJeff Shilt

II
Stage 07: Denver

In 2011, Levi Leipheimer won the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. In 2012, he was the last to start the final ITT, but he would not wear the Yellow Jersey on the final podium.

May 14, 2017

This year I decided to commit wholly and completely to Science and Technology. I purchased a Top of the Line Trainer, I subscribed to TrainerRoad, I outlined my goals, plugged in my dates, and I got down to it.

We’ve arrived at the Dirty Kanza 200. For Project Y this would be the final test: our Subject Athletes had put in months of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual training in order to prepare themselves for this event.